In the Land of Smoke and Haze

“All clear,” the voice came from the transmitter radio. “Permission to land and engage.” Already? I remember thinking. I thought the trip would take a lot longer than that. It had only been a few hours since we’d set off. I’d done some flying around before, but never a full landing like this. It sure was closer than I would’ve imagined.

“Copy that,” I answered. I prepared the pod for landing as it approached the atmosphere. The first trouble arose due to the visibility. I could hardly see a thing; the air outside was so murky, foggy, and condensed it was like a total blindfold. All I could really do was rely on radar and the landing coordinates to find my way to the landing site. And not to mention the space junk. The waste management team back home had done their best to clear the way, but even then, there was still a lot of assorted garbage and wreckage to sift through. Managing to avoid it all in the first place was almost as tough as the landing itself. Needless to say, I made it okay, or else I wouldn’t be telling this story, now would I?

Anyway, the landing. Thankfully, after sighting land, I was able to make it safe and sound. Not so thankfully, the air didn’t get any clearer on the surface. They’d warned me that this was very likely to be an issue. The air was likely extremely toxic, they said. I rose from the pilot’s seat and exited the cockpit. From there, I went to the fitting room. Minutes later, I opened the main door to the pod, taking my first real view of the misty expanse. …From behind my suit’s visor. What? I wasn’t going out there without it. My skin could start melting, or something. Not to mention, it held all my important equipment and instruments.

A little while after setting foot on the ground, a little crackling sound began buzzing next to my left ear. “Good, you made it.” It was mission control, obviously; no other voice could manage to sound so bluntly authoritative. “Your destination should be a short walk away. It should be marked on your map. Good luck.” The transmission then cut off.

Geez. How impersonal. Not even some encouraging words or anything. No need to be so uptight, you guys. They could’ve used a little lightening up.

But enough about my own problems. Back to the exploration. It seemed to me as if the dank fog was expanding, growing thicker by the minute as I headed on my way. Lucky for me, my suit had that covered, too. Its enhanced vision allowed me to see much further than normal, so I didn’t have too much trouble. As I went on, however, I soon realized that no suit could make my surroundings any less dull and dreary. I’d already thought that the colonies were boring enough, what with the enclosed spaces and the lack of scenery. But this… this took the cake, alright. Everywhere I looked, it was just dry, hard ground, riddled with cracks.

This “short walk” ended up lasting about an hour or so. Why couldn’t I have just landed at this place, again? Something about acidity and toxicity in the air? After spending all that time surrounded by the fog, I could certainly believe it. In fact, I wondered how I was supposed to survive out here if even a huge ship couldn’t make it to the place. I tried not to think about it as I continued on.

It was a very uneventful trip, to be sure. Occasionally, I’d look up to the sky, just in case there was something new… but every time, it was the same thing: a thick mass of clouds, blotting out all sunlight. That is what it’s called, right? The sun? I always found it odd that, unlike the other millions of suns in our universe, this particular one never had a name of its own. People must’ve thought it was special enough as it was.

…Oh, sorry. I keep going off on unrelated tangents, but it’s just that the trip was, well… boring. There was absolutely nothing to see. I’ve said that already, haven’t I? That just goes on to show you how boring it was. As I trudged on, I kept thinking back to what they’d told us back in school. Even now, I still remember that day. I was around 12 or 13. It was a very important lesson, and students were required to be authorized by their parents to attend it. We were sat down, and made to watch a video. It started nicely enough. It showed footage of green meadows, blue lakes, wide open skies… things I had never seen, only learned or heard of them, through hushed whispers and rumors. Only one place in the galaxy had ever known those wonderful sights… That much, I knew. That there was a planet called Earth. That our grandparents, and some of our parents, had been there. Something about it had always bugged me, though. No one ever seemed to talk about it much, especially not the adults. And no one ever told me why we couldn’t go back. It was very odd… and I was about to find out why.

The video zoomed out to show the full planet. An expanse of blue and green. I thought it was beautiful then.

Then it cut to a different clip. It was Earth, alright, but… something was wrong. It seemed to be covered by a cloud of some sort; it took me a while to figure out it was a load of litter and junk. One could barely see the planet itself.

Suddenly, a bright flash appeared. Then a massive plume of mushroom-shaped smoke.

I won’t describe what else was in the video. It was too horrifying. Now, we finally knew the truth. You might think it’s a little silly, grieving for a planet none of us had ever set foot on in our lives. For us, this wasn’t much different than watching a disaster movie, or reading a particularly dreary book. But to see it happen right before our eyes, to a planet that had existed once, made it all the more real.

Somehow, I couldn’t believe it. It seemed too brutal to be true. Ever since then, I felt the insatiable urge to go down there myself. To confirm what had really happened. So I joined the station’s astronaut squad; and believe me, it wasn’t easy. Even as I walked on the planet’s surface, I wondered if it had really been worth it, to go through all that, just to see what I already knew all along.

And so I went on. The good news was, I was almost there. The bad news, on the other hand, was that as I got nearer, the landscape became much more interesting to watch, and not in a good way. Fallen trees, dried lake-bottoms, huge fissures in the ground… it looked like the aftermath of some otherworldly force, and yet I knew that it was precisely the opposite. Steam and fog was appearing much more frequently, not only from the air but also from the deep, deep craters at my feet.

I had heard rumors on what had happened here. Apparently, it all started with pollution. We had finally gone overboard in riddling this planet full of deadly toxins in the air; radiation, pollutants, you know the deal. The atmosphere became unhospitable for life due to an excess of greenhouse gases. These were so concentrated and plentiful that eventually the land itself began to suffer. Oceans became toxic as well, and without them, all greenery and wildlife soon followed. What little was left was eventually vaporized by the sun’s unfettered rays, no longer impeded by such silly things as an ozone layer. It didn’t take long for the once-greatest known civilization in the universe to escape this horror as soon as they could… leaving only the shriveled husk beneath my feet.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to watch this gory spectacle for much longer. A few minutes later, I found the place I was looking for. Facing forward, I stood at the foot of a massive cavern. The opening must’ve been a good 100 meters wide, and was almost circle-like. To be honest, I felt a little uneasy going in… but I couldn’t bring in a vehicle or anything. I had no idea whether the terrain might be suitable for such valuable machinery. So I had no choice but to go on my own. I switched on my visor’s headlights, and headed in.

It was actually a bit of a relief for the first leg of the trip. The cave was as deserted as the outside had been, sure, but at least it looked familiar; unthreatening. I had seen caves before, and this was exactly as I had imagined they’d be like—cold, empty, and confined. And it remained so for about an hour or so. At that point, I really needed a break. I ought to have taken one sooner, I knew, but my objective, and my eagerness to fulfill it, kept me going.

The cave was deadly quiet. There was nothing to be seen but the stone walls. I turned my head to the other end of the tunnel, the one I was heading for.

The bright light shone the way forward, showing a human-like shape in my way. Lying on the ground.

I jumped back, startled. Quickly I scrambled to my feet and took a wary look at the strange shape. The display on my visor buzzed with numbers and data as it analyzed it. After a tense few seconds, the words NO SIGNS OF LIFE appeared, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn’t about to drop my guard, though. I cautiously approached the body, and gently nudged it with my foot. It seemed to be human, but there was no flesh left. Years of decay had left nothing but the bones, and the tattered remains of what looked like a white coat.

So. People had died down here. That was comforting news, alright. But I had a mission to complete. Gulping harshly, I decided that my break was over. It was time to move on.

Just as in my trip across the surface, the cavern began showing more signs of change as time went on. I saw several other corpses as I progressed. All of them looked the same as the first: dusty, old skeletons. At one point, I began searching their bodies, seeing if there was anything useful on them, or any sort of hint as to their fate. But there was nothing; time must’ve eliminated any trace of that, as well. Or perhaps they had simply never carried anything in the first place.

Once the next half-hour had passed, I began to notice a very gradual, yet definite change on the cave walls. Littered among the rock face were patches of metal, as if they’d been grafted onto the surface by a careless surgeon who forgot the rest. It gave the place an eerie patchwork feel; which, combined with the dead bodies, gave me the chills with every step I took. Within ten minutes, however, the walls became full-on metallic. As I walked, there were now at least ten bodies on sight at a given time. Forget the chills; I was now completely scared. What on earth could have happened to all these people? And… what was this place? They’d told me very little of it back at mission control…

Of course. Why not ask them? It had been a while after my last contact with them, after all, so they must’ve been concerned by now. I turned on my intercom, and opened up the channel. Unusually, there was a lot of static interference; an annoying buzz that interrupted the man’s voice. I managed to hear a frantic “Where are you?!” “I’m down in the cave,” I answered back. “Hey, would you mind giving me the facts straight? You never told me that there’d be dead people down here.”

“…Some people might not have made it out before we left,” I heard him say. The static continued. “Proceed with your objective. You’re almost there. You must retrieve the Terra-typer immediately.”

“Oh, is that what it’s called? Clever name. Give my props to whoever named it.”

“You’ve probably already seen her somewhere down there! Now stop wasting time. We’re detecting massive energy readings down at the surface, and I don’t like it.”

Oh. Oh dear. “Right. I’m on my way.” I cut off the channel and ran off. I had to find this device, quickly.

Practically as soon as I headed out, I finally reached the end of the long tunnel. It led me to a small, man-made room, covered by steel walls, with a small door leading out. Looking behind me, it appeared as if there had been a wall behind me; its remains littered the floor at my feet. But there was no time to waste. I headed out the door into an apparent laboratory. This place… it looked just like home. Was this place where development on the space stations started? Focusing at the task at hand, I looked around. There were several doors and passages open for me. I switched on my maps, and saw that I was headed for a door on the left. So that’s where I went…

…Into a dead-end. Seemed like time had caught up to this place; my way was blocked by rubble. Cursing, I searched for an alternate route, and headed onwards. I’ll spare you the details of yet more trudging through the deserted cavern-lab. Luckily, my destination was not far; occasionally, I’d run into more dead-ends, or saw that my route had to be changed. The time I spent searching also gave me the chance to really take in what I’d seen. Death, destruction, obliteration of an entire planet… what other race but humans could find it in themselves to destroy their home? Was it even worth it coming down here at all? I knew Earth was long gone, but… seeing it like this… What could stop them from doing it all over again?

My train of thought was interrupted by a closed door. I had reached the end of the facility; the deepest point. The door was locked tight, but that was no problem for me. I could get it open quite easily. The question was, did I really want to? What would I find at the other side? Would the machine even still be there, or work, after all these years? With a sigh of resignation, I concluded there was only one way to find out.

Out of the right gauntlet of my suit popped out a small rod, attached to a mechanism. I couldn’t help but glance at it. We had gone as far as to create thought-activated spacesuits… and yet we couldn’t save our home. But I digress. At my will, a fine, blue laser shot out from the rod. It completely melted down the lock, and the door creaked open. Gulping, I went in.

The moment I stepped inside, I involuntarily gasped. I couldn’t help myself. For the room was pristine and intact. So deep underground, it must have survived the wreckage. But, even so, there was something else. No more bodies were littered around. And, as I checked my head display in astonishment, I slowly removed my helmet. It was quite possibly the stupidest move I had ever taken… but I took in a deep breath. The air was completely normal. Fresh, even. Still in awe, my gaze rolled across the room. It was practically bare, covered with metallic walls everywhere save the ceiling, along with many computers circling the room. Nothing else to see but one thing. It’s hard to describe it… a large cylinder, covered in many control panels, its top disappearing into the cavernous depths above.

At last. The Terra-typer.

Heh. I just realized, for all this build-up, I’ve barely even talked about what the Terra-typer is. I suppose that’s what happens when you forget you’re telling a story… but better late than never. To be honest, I didn’t know much about it myself. Not that there was much I needed to know. Only one thing mattered about that device to me, and the people back home... as the name implies, it’s a terraformer. Or at least, a prototype; the scientists down here must’ve been working on it down to their last breath. And here it was, right before my eyes, in perfect working order—the fact that I hadn’t keeled over dead yet while exposed to the air inside was proof of that. I knew what I had to do now. There was a control panel at the base of the tower-like structure. I took a few steps toward it.

I had gone no longer than a few strides when I heard a faint rumble. Rumbling is never a good sign, much less so deep underground. My first instinct was to grab for my helmet again. As soon as it was properly set, I was greeted with the sound of loud static, as well as a strident, flashing warning going off on my visor.

“CRITICAL ENERGY LEVELS, EVACUATE, EVACUATE”

“...Oh, f—!“

I didn’t get to finish that sentence. The rumbling sound suddenly became a full-on boom, as the room started to shake uncontrollably, knocking me to the floor.

No. No. Whatever was happening, I was not about to die here in vain. Not without finishing my task. I got up, shakily, and looked around me. The sturdy, steel room seemed unharmed by whatever was going on, but I couldn’t rely on it staying that way.

If only my suit would shut up! It kept going, on and on, “RADIATION OVERLOAD”. I turned the display off; obviously, I had gotten the message by then. Whatever this was, it’d be deadly if I couldn’t escape. I struggled to make it to the control panel during the tremors. Once I got there, shockingly, I was able to activate it. It was still working! But it wouldn’t for long. Quickly I began in-putting a series of commands. My instructions were precise, and they worked like a charm. Soon, the screen flashed bright green, signaling success, and began displaying a countdown of 60 seconds. Without wasting any time, I turned away to the doorway. I ran back to it, but I didn’t even reach it before I realized exactly what I was looking at… and was struck by utter, hopeless despair.

The door was completely blocked by rubble. Even the sturdy walls down this far were starting to give out… I could already see cracks forming in that room. I must’ve stood there for a few seconds, completely speechless… I was never getting out of that accursed cavern. I would never make it home. I wouldn’t ever see anyone I had ever cared for, ever again.

The slowly collapsing walls shook me back into reality, literally. There was only one thing left to be done, if I wasn’t to have wasted my mission… to have died in vain. I turned back to the control panel. I hit one key. The countdown skipped right to zero.

The screen went black. The rumbling got even louder and stronger. Far in the depths of the ceiling, a scratching noise began as a metal panel began sliding out of the wall, and the cylinder began to descend. The panel became a ceiling, and I could hear loud thumps as rocks fell on top of it. Suddenly, I was thrust to the floor, completely flat and unable to move. I could feel the force of acceleration, nearly turning me into jelly. But I wasn’t so lucky. The rumbling got louder and louder, until I heard a great crash. And then it stopped.

Though it happened quite quickly, it felt as if it took much longer. Having to experience it oneself tends to make that happen. But it was over soon enough, and I was then able to get up. I had all but lost my sense of balance, but I managed to stagger over to the damaged room’s sole window. My guess was that it used to peer into an adjacent room… but it was now a gateway into the depths of space. Cracks had begun to appear here, but thankfully they had all been sealed by the procedure. So I was able to see, with no problem at all, the cracking, shattering Earth I had launched from, falling apart before my very eyes.

This must all sound overly melodramatic by now, but all I have to say to that is: if you had ever barely escaped a planet before its destruction, you’d feel the same way.

Those energy readings from earlier… it must’ve been the impending collapse of the planet’s core. Compounded with all the other problems Earth had to deal with already, it must’ve been too much to handle. I had come just in time before the planet gave out. Had the people back home known that? Had they always known that maybe I wouldn’t make it back? It was too late to think about that now. I had set the Terra-typer module on a one-way course to Colony 2, the space station I had set off from. It had no steering wheel, or thrusters. Just barely enough fuel to escape Earth’s orbit. And of course, no exits, either. The initial door to the room was now sealed shut, with no airlock, and I didn’t dare to break open the windows; the vacuum of space would tear the place apart. I was trapped inside, forced to wait until the module crashed onto its destination.

In case you were wondering, I don’t have any regrets, really. I knew that making a trip to a post-apocalyptic world was an incredible risk. And what remained of the human race needed the Terra-typer. It was the last great product of humanity; a machine that could recreate an Earth-like environment, on a new planet, in another galaxy… Perhaps it was only fitting that it was the very last thing to leave Earth. For the humans left in the space stations, this was an invaluable tool. A chance to start over. So I came to get it. As long as it got there, that was all that mattered in the end.

I still had a few days left. I had made the initial trip on an actual spacecraft, traveling at light speed to Earth in little less than an hour. The module didn’t do this, instead trudging along at a mere 100,000 kilometers an hour. How fortunate that was is up for debate. It gave me plenty of time to think about what I’d done with my life… the horrific sights I’d seen on my last mission…whether or not it would hurt, dying in a horrific crash. I’ll admit it, it still scares me, even now…!

As I lay there, spending my final moments in horror and despair, I couldn’t help but think about death. The kind of death that surely awaited me. The death I had seen thousands of miles away, within the former crib of humankind, who had ended up destroying it. What hope was there for them anymore? All that would happen would be that they’d settle on some other planet, and tear it apart over the next few million years…

But as I pondered these dark thoughts, one last image came to me… the dusty, tattered old skeletons down at the laboratory cavern. My guess was that they had been trapped down there while they were alive; the entrance I took must’ve appeared after their deaths. But despite the hopelessness, despite the thought of dying alone, buried miles underground… they carried on. Their last act was to be the completion of humanity’s salvation. All so that others would live. Down there, trapped for eternity… there was a glimmer of hope. And I realize now, I must keep it alive. I must finish this journey.

Yet besides all I have mentioned, I also thought about how no one else had seen Earth in years. No one really knew the extent of the damage it had suffered. Even after all this, after the Terra-typer was safe and sound, what would stop the human race from doing this all over again? It would all have been for nothing. They needed to be told what I had seen. They needed to know exactly why this could never be repeated. And so, that’s how I've been spending my final days… There are a few computers on board here. I’ve been recording my entire journey down. It helps take my mind off of my impending doom. Despite my best efforts, however, even as I write these words, I can already feel it coming.

According to the control panel, I will impact the space station in approximately fifteen minutes. Just as well; I’m nearly done here. I’m not worried about the Terra-typer; if the breakdown of an entire planet couldn’t destroy this module, it’d surely survive a crash landing. Sadly, I’m sure this won’t be the case for a human being.

It really is hard to say goodbye to life, you know? I feel like if I keep writing this, I can stall the end, forever, if I have to. But that’s not how it will be.

To all my friends and loved ones… to all my family… this is the end. Thank you all, for everything you’ve done for me, and for being there when I needed you to. After I finish with this, I’ll make sure to save it. They ought to be able to retrieve the data banks on board; if I remember correctly, they’re well-protected. That’ll be my last recorded statement. Let me end it with this: to all of mankind, be wiser. One man has already lost his life to give you all a better chance. No one else needs to, do they? So please don’t screw it up again. Consider this your last shot at living.

Five minutes…